When reaching out comes back to you!

Seminars at Gamalakhe

Ben presents the 100% attendee with some fun gifts

Caz gets a gift from her latest creche course delegates

Caz helping to dish up at Nkulu soup kitchen on a v cold day!

We just want to share the exciting Sunday morning we had last week.  We met the founder of Indumiso Community Based Group, Mrs Zama Mbele, by 'chance' – she saw our car sticker advertising Bible courses and said 'I've got this youth group – and what we really need is Bible study.'  We were happy to oblige!

(The group is actually a 30 member strong community group which feeds needy elders and orphans 3 times a week in and around Gamalakhe township 5km inland from Margate.  They also go into the homes of housebound elderly and wash and feed them. 'Indumiso' means 'praise'.)

Within 2 weeks of our first meeting with Zama we were holding our first of 8 seminars, 'The Jesus Story', looking at the gospel accounts of Christ's life.  The group consists of churchgoers of varying denominations but for many of them the terms 'parable' or 'Sermon on the Mount' were unknown so the emphasis was on reading and understanding what you read, with Bible study tips to help encourage the group to study the Bible for themselves at home.

The members were so enthusiastic and some of the workshop sessions were really exciting, with the young people asking searching questions about church practices and applications for their own lives.

The culmination of the course was a certificate presentation last Sunday morning, we paid for transport down to Margate and adapted our Sunday service times so that the group heard Ben's final 'seminar' talk that morning, on 'The Road to Emmaus' - where he pointed out that Christ used the scriptures, rather than his personal presence, to prove who he was – a recommendation for Bible study if ever there was!  The most recent crèche course had just finished and so we invited those ladies to come for the same celebration service and also recent students of the correspondence courses.

In total we had about 25 visitors that morning, with the Indumiso choir singing some lovely Zulu songs with beautiful harmonies and deep basses from the boys.  

A spokesperson from Indumiso stood and thanked us all for our support and presented Ben & I with a gift!!  Then, the crèche teachers stood and presented me with a gift – a very large one!!

It really was a Sunday morning to remember for the Margate ecclesia.

The fantastic thing about the Indumiso group is their emphasis on serving God through their work, they approached us initially for Bible study and they have stated they want to continue Bible study with us so we are discussing how to continue with youth classes in the coming weeks.

Ben & Caz Parsons, Ignite 2020 Margate team

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